We’re developing the structure to succeed (From Worcester News)

We’re developing the structure to succeed

10:00am Saturday 28th January 2012 in Paul James

HAVING risen to second in the British Basketball League, there is a new challenge facing Worcester Wolves.

Following 12 wins from 15 games before last night’s match at Sheffield Sharks, we are now finding every team is really preparing well for fixtures against us.

Before, opponents thought they were just playing ‘little old Worester’ and perhaps didn’t prepare as well as they might have done.

That has changed and we have been on Sky Sports three times this season as well so teams have got a lot of footage to scout us properly.

That comes with its own difficulties so we’re having to freshen things up and make sure we do things very well because all the other teams know what we’re going to do.

At the moment, Wolves are probably punching above their weight but that’s just because of where we’ve been in the past.

We are trying to build a culture whereby, in the next few years, people will look at us and think we are punching at our weight and not above.

It is crucial to do this year- on-year for people to really respect what we’re doing and for us to be considered a bigger club.

Financially, we don’t compare to the teams around us but we do have other things to offer and resources that we can use, especially being involved with the University of Worcester.

We have strength and conditioning coaches such as Mykolas Kavaliauskas, physios, sports therapists and analysts — all things which help us do things on the court that other teams perhaps can’t.

It was also important for myself to recruit well. Trying to freshen the team up this season was difficult but we got in the right personalities and they’ve come together well.

You don’t always need to have a lot of money to make it work but, to keep it consistent and stay at the top level, having cash helps.

Other teams certainly res-pect what we’re doing. They have to because our record speaks for itself and I think they could see it coming.

We’ve put a structure and discipline into what we’re trying to do and, in building this programme, it was only going to be a matter of time before we got the right balance of professional players and students.

This year we’ve done that really well and hopefully we will continue that for the rest of the season.

There are 15 league games to go and still some tough matches to be played so, hopefully, we can just keep riding this crest of a wave that we’re on and continue to do well.